I've been introducing my daughter to The Flintstones lately. It was a big part of my childhood, airing every day at lunchtime on the local station. I'd come home for lunch and watch it on the little black-and-white set in the kitchen.

Coming back with an adult perspective, I see a lot of things I didn't before, and not just references I didn't get as a kid, or jokes that went over my head. Watching The Flintstones again for the first time in years, I'm amazed at what a bunch of liars the characters on that show are. Most of the episodes involve some sort of lie, deception or secret. Mostly it's Fred, but Wilma does her share, with Barney or Betty going along.

Even apart from the lies, I never noticed what a bastard Fred Flintstone could be - dishonest, lazy, impulsive, short-tempered, egotistical, selfish, insensitive, and so on.

On the bright side, I suppose there are always consequences. Lies are exposed, a price is paid, Fred (or whoever) usually sees the error of his ways and he's genuinely sorry, even if he hasn't exactly mended his ways.

Looking at all of that, I'm also gaining a greater appreciation of how much The Simpsons owe to The Flintstones. The similarities between Fred and Homer are even clearer than I'd thought. And Fred clearly owes a lot to Ralph Kramden.

One of my childhood regulars. I noticed from an early age that they were a stone age version of the Honeymooners,a favorite of mine. Yes,Fred and the bunch were not perfect but I knew it was "let's pretend" like my grandmother used to say. At lease they saw the consequences of their words and deeds......I don't see that so much these days on tv.

In an episode of Simpsons, they mentioned themselves essentially being a ripoff of The Flintstones, and said the Flintstones owed everything to Honeymooners.

All in all, I love The Flintstones. I recall hearing that 'Family Guy' creator Seth MacFarlane is remaking The Flintstones.

Considering his current product, that would be a disaster.

Logged

If it's true what they say, that GOD created us in His image, then why should we not love creating, and why should we not continue to do so, as carefully and ethically as we can, on whatever scale we're capable of?

The choice is simple; refuse to create, and refuse to grow, or build, with care and love.

The Flintstones is as good a sitcom as any from the golden age of TV. I think the writing was brilliant. The characters were real characters, not just characterizations. The voice actors really made the characters their own. It's not that lazy phoned in voice acting we see in most children's cartoons. The Flintstones should be getting the same kind of respect that I Love Lucy or The Dick Van Dyke show gets. The Flintstones is one those important TV landmarks.